Scheduling Burnout

One of the hardest things is taking that step to meet someone. You worry - "will he look completely different than his picture?", "what happens if we don't have anything to talk about?" or "what if I am not attracted to him?" You figure that the guy is probably thinking the same thing, too, but it doesn't help matters. Especially if when you meet, the fears come true for one party but not the other.

I think I have done a good job of pre-screening all applicants for the "date" position, but one can never be sure. Even if you meet someone in the offline world, pre-screening is not always effective. I met this guy about a year and a half ago who was cute and we had a lot to talk about. My friends and I call him "Hockey Guy". Turns out that he was an asshole and mentally unstable (he was even on medication). Bad combination. These fears are not unfounded.

Once you decide to take this step, meeting the other person should happen soon. The longer you wait, the more these fears circle around in your brain and mutate. It moves on to "I'm busy, too, but I can make time. What is going on that the man can't find an hour to sit down and meet?" Maybe it's my impatience and over-active imagination, but these are the things that I think about.

So I have been talking to "Attorney Guy". He seems pretty nice and even though he doesn't have the easiest picture to see online, he looks cute. "Attorney Guy" and I have been talking about meeting up. Last week, I forgot to call him early enough in the week to meet up on Wednesday. So we were going to try for this weekend but now, he's unavailable all weekend. It's a whole weekend. And he never said "I have plans with my friends" or "I'm heading out of town". In fact, just that this weekend doesn't work. "Attorney Guy" has always been open about what he's up to. Is it really just the case he's working on? Or is there something else? I just want to meet this guy and find out. And the longer this drags on, the more I start to worry that there's something going on. When he first left me a voicemail, his voice made me think that he wasn't 36 - that he was more like 46. I almost never wrote him back. I was afraid to call because I was skittish about the voice. And the voicemail was very long and detailed. I think he was actually talking to himself or thinking out loud for part of it.

There's also "Wrestling Guy" that I've been talking to. He's quite the opposite. I call him "Wrestling Guy" since the only picture where you can kinda see his face is a picture of him from a wrestling match. That or he's just wearing a funny outfit that looks similar to a college wrestling uniform. He and I have been emailing back and forth for a couple weeks. We talk about sports and joke about crazy funny things we do, like the letter I wrote to Comcast. (I only gave him funny snippets - I didn't clue him in to my absolutely crazy side where ripped Comcast a new one for taking MSNBC out of the channel lineup during the Olympics.) For all of our emailing, he has never mentioned meeting up or talking on the phone. Is he that shy? Or did he find this blog? Why hasn't he written me back in 3 days - I know he's been online because his profile says "active within 24 hours." This is turning me into a stalker.

This back and forth really gets exhausting. I just want to have my first meet up with a nice guy and actually have it go well. I already sent one running for the hills with my humor, so I want to see if there ever is a good meet up. And the longer that I wait for "Attorney Guy", the more I am nervous at the thought of meeting him. I need an Easy Button for this online dating stuff.